In previous research where legitimation of leadership has been experimentally manipulated, it has frequently been related to acceptance of the group leader, performance, and the structure that emerges in the group. No studies have created a situation where two different individuals have been legitimated by two different individuals have been legitimated by two different processes. This would create a situation of status incongruency for the group two incongruent hierarchies existing simultaneously in the group. Attempts to study status incongruency have difficulty demonstrating that status incongrueny, as a group characteristc, exists in the experimental groups and the effects on the dependent variables, when they occur, have been subtle. A previous study conducted by the principle investigator (Reynolds and Orcutt, 1972) found that the attempt to create status incongruency between an emergent influence hierarchy and an experimenter legitimated task hierarchy was only partially successful. Analysis of the effects of experimental manipulations suggested that the legitimation of the task hierarchy was very potent in affecting the task related influence structure adopted by the group--they preferred a hierarchical to an equalitarian structure. Post hoc analysis of the status incongruent groups suggested that status incongruence was only creatd in one-half of the group, but when it did exist, its effect on the adoption of a hierarchical influence structure was equal to the effect of legitimation of the task hierarchy by the experimenter. The proposed study investigate: 1) The conditions that allow a differentiated emergent influence hierarchy to develop and, hence, to allow the exprimenter to place a group member, low in the emergent hierarchy, in an influential task role--creating status incongruence. 2) Give the groups a choice between two procedures, one hierarchical and one equalitarian, that equal in terms of potential for achieving high group performance scores, eliminating one confounding variable present in the two earlier studies.